All posts tagged International Monetary Fund

Hungary’s Development Minister Tamas Fellegi announced Thursday he’s resigning from his post to focus on Hungary’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

Mr. Fellegi heads the delegation representing the Hungarian government at the talks initiated to secure backing for the country to reassure investors and maintain Hungary’s ability to finance itself in the market. He’s also the first minister leaving his post in the current term of parliament that began in 2010.

Mr. Fellegi said he couldn’t continue doing two jobs–running the ministry and negotiating with the IMF.

“After thorough consideration I have decided that I must respectfully and with deep regret relinquish one of my roles,” he said.

As a negotiator, Mr. Fellegi said Friday he held informal talks on Wednesday with Iryna Ivaschenko, resident representative of the IMF in Budapest to start work on the schedule of the formal negotiations. Read More »

Poland appears to have more money than it needs to protect itself from serious market turmoil, economists said after the International Monetary Fund approved a $30 billion precautionary flexible credit line for the country.

In December, Poland asked the IMF for the extension of the line. It hadn’t used a cent of the previous $20.4 billion facility approved in July 2009.

Applying for the credit line was understandable back in 2009 amid the global financial crisis, when a zloty meltdown was a widely discussed possibility. But the situation has changed dramatically since then, said Piotr Kalisz, senior economist at Citibank in Warsaw. Read More »

Ahead of Hungary’s municipal elections on Oct. 3, the center-right government’s communication seems aimed at scoring points with local voters at the expense of international relations.

After starting what the government and some commentators referred to as the “fight for freedom” against the International Monetary Fund, Hungary’s leaders have now stood up against the European Union, which opposes against the government’s plan of taking private pension funds under the state umbrella to cut budget deficit, on paper.

Required by foreign lenders to cut its budget deficits to earlier-agreed targets after Hungary had to seek a bailout amid the global financial crisis, the Hungarian government sees making the private funds part of the state system as a way that could bring the deficit down significantly. But the EU opposes the plan. Read More »

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